C&C Please!!! Thank you.

[tommynthompson]

Greetings to all. I found this site yesterday and it appears to be a wonderful resource for those with a desire to both improve their skills and to help others. I hope that I am able to do the same. I purchased a Canon 60D for a few months ago and I have recently been using it much more frequently.

My children and I were at a local park walking our new puppy and I notice what appears to a houseboat. It was a neat looking boat so I snapped a couple of photos. The photo was shot with my Canon 85mm, ISO200, 1/1600 at f 1.8. It was taken late in the day as the sun was behind the trees. Unfortunately, it was a bit off in the distance and I had to crop it a bit.

All critiques and corrections are welcome and very much appreciated.


_MG_1224 by tommynthompson, on Flickr

 

[GeorgieGirl]

Lucky you to be out on a walk with this scenery! I think your crop is perfectly fine...in this photo the boat has a place to go to in the open space on the left. The water reflections are wonderful. What interests me is the wake being so blue and the water being so brown, which I imagine is the reflection of the trees in the afternoon sun. I like your shot~

 

[tirediron]

I agree; this is a very well composed photo, and intentionally or not, you've pretty much nailed "Rule of thirds composition". My only comments would be that you might want to try making some very subtle adjustments to the exposure and saturation in your post-processing software. It's nice as-is, but I think it could "pop" just a little more.

 

[tommynthompson]

Thank you both for your comments. Tirediron...I completely agree about the saturation as it didn't jump out at me like I was hoping. I have much more to learn about the subtleties of exposure manipulation (along with all other facets of course).

 

[BigknockHawk]

I agree that the composition on this is just fine. Everything looks great to me. Nice photo.

 

[tommynthompson]

Thank you BigknockHawk.

 

[Terry Leach]

Nice capture.

 

[tommynthompson]

Thanks Terry. I like the photo in your signature. I love capturing old structures such as that and converting to B&W. I have a couple my wife is going to frame and hang on the wall. Look forward to seeing some of yours. Regards.

 

[Compaq]

Composition is good. The boat is venturing into the frame. It's not placed in the middle, which is good. I think cropping off some of those trees might be good. Not saying it would be better, but some might prefer it that way.

On the technical aspects of it: it's a little dark. Perhaps bump the exposure a bit. And change the colour balance, maybe...

 

[tommynthompson]

I do like it with the exposure increased somewhat. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Compaq]

And a question about your EXIF. Unless that boat was going extremely fast (which I doubt ), I'd stop up the aperture and slow down the shutter speed somewhat. You'd get a sharper image when stopped down some.

 

[tommynthompson]

I was actually taking pictures of my new puppy jumping around with my kids and my two daughters skipping rocks. I noticed the boat and took a couple of photos. To be honest, I wouldn't have thought of that anyhow. Thanks for additional tips.